Page 7 of Decorated

“Lovely,” Alfie said.

“It really is,” Blaine insisted, taking a step toward Alfie that might have been a little on the aggressive side.

Alfie looked surprised at Blaine’s advance. “No, I meant it,” he said, his stoic face softening a bit. “It really does sound lovely.” He paused, then went on with, “I don’t have any family to celebrate with.”

Blaine sucked in a quick breath. To him, as a Hawthorne, having no family was a completely foreign concept.

“You have to have some family,” he said. “Didn’t you say your dad went to school here?”

“He did,” Alfie nodded. “And then he died when I was six.”

“Oh, fuck.” Blaine shoved a hand through his hair, fidgeting as he realized how badly he’d screwed up again. “Sorry, I didn’t know.”

Alfie shrugged. “Why would you know? I hadn’t told you yet. And while we’re at it, my mum passed a few years ago as well, and I’m an only child.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” Blaine said, his heart feeling like it would bleed out for Alfie. “That really does suck.”

Alfie shrugged and went back to looking at the Christmas decorations. “It’s my reality, so there isn’t much point in getting worked up about it.”

Blaine was tempted to disagree with that but managed to keep his mouth shut for a change.

“Anyhow, that’s why I don’t like Christmas,” Alfie went on with a short sniff. “Christmas is for families, and for children. There’s not really any point in it for me.”

“You should spend Christmas with our family,” Blaine spilled out the invitation before he could think about it.

He paused, blinked, tried to have some sense about the whole thing, then shook his head and stuck to his original thought.

“Seriously. You should do the holidays with us. I’m sure Uncle Robert wouldn’t mind. We’ve taken in strays for Christmas before.”

Alfie had been looking at the trees, but he turned slowly to meet Blaine’s eyes. “Taken in strays?”

Blaine’s heart dropped to his feet. Why was it that he could never say the right thing to blokes that he fancied? And he definitely fancied Corporal Alfie Spears. Who wouldn’t, whatwith his movie star good looks, his fit, muscled body, and his honeyed voice? He didn’t have to know everything there was about the man to know that he’d like to climb his candy cane and stand under the mistletoe with him.

“Isn’t that what strays are?” he asked, deciding to defend himself, and maybe flirt a little, instead of backing down and racking himself with guilt over constantly saying the wrong thing. “People who don’t have a place of their own to go?”

“I have a place,” Alfie said, turning to face him fully.

Something about that sparkle in his eyes, despite his stern demeanor, had Blaine tingling all over. They were flirting. They were definitely flirting. Which meant there was a chance Corporal Alfie Spears played for their side after all.

“Is it as fabulous as mine?” he asked, resting his weight on one hip and being as camp as he could be.

Alfie stared at him for a moment, completely unreadable. That was when Blaine noticed his arms were still crossed and he was hugging himself tightly, like he was trying to keep something in and stop it from escaping.

“Well, you’re going to be around Hawthorne House for a while this Christmas anyhow, aren’t you?” Blaine asked, sidling closer to Alfie. “You’ve got this toy drive and Christmas party to organize, right?”

“I suppose,” Alfie said, his voice low.

Blaine treated him to his most winning smile as he slid to a stop just a foot or so in front of him. “That means we’ll be in each other’s company a lot, since I’ll be decorating for the party.”

“Is that so?”

Oh yeah, they were flirting hardcore.

“It is,” Blaine said, his heart racing. “That means I have plenty of time to convince you of the joys and wonders of the Christmas season.”

Alfie just grunted, like he didn’t believe it for a second.

For a moment, they just stood there staring at each other. Blaine felt like he was daring Alfie to do something. He couldn’t figure out for the life of him what the dare was, but he was going to win. All he knew was that he would so much rather spend his holidays trying to get under Alfie’s skin instead of running around avoiding Dave and the mess he’d made of his life.

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